3rd gen clutch life expectancy

I am 270K on original clutch on my 95 with no idea condition but it still goes

 

Many would also say that coasting in traffic up to a red light is dumb lol... Which is arguably what one must be doing if not downshifting to be in the proper gear if you need to accelerate for some reason.
Just sayin.

 

88k miles on mine with no issues. I tow a 4,000 travel trailer pretty often. This is my 5th toyota truck with a stick. I sold one with 66k on it and the others all had 200,000 plus on them. My son is still driving my 03 and it has 278,00. All original clutches. The biggest problem I've ever had was an 88 corolla. I replaced the clutch slave cylinder at about 225K and that was my wifes daily driver then I taught my daughter how to drive it and then it became her daily driver and then did exactly the same with my son. Sold that car with 268k. I think toyota clutches are bulletproof.

 

I see your point and you are not wrong at all.

FWIW, I’ve been driving manuals for 20 years now and it’s all been in busy metropolitan city. Not once I needed to accelerate in such an instant when coasting in N. But that’s just me.

 

133,000 and counting on the stock clutch and I think its got a lot of life left. I think one of the hardest things on the clutch is backing a trailer up (especially loaded), but I don't do that very often. I need to do the 2Lo mod to make that better. Reverse is way too long. If it was the same ratio as 1st gear I wouldn't have as much of a complaint.

 

Like you, I coast myself whenever I get the chance. Never worried about it. I don't have to be in the gear I need to get in the gear I need right now.

 

My throw out bearing died at 58,000 miles. Tech misdiagnosed clutch slippage somehow and failed to notice the squealing. I think they thought I was angling for a new clutch in warranty. They offered a great deal of 3500 to change the clutch, so a friend and I did it. Anyway Mendenhall auto's hob-legged, half def tech was incorrect, the clutch had more than half of it's material left and there was significant wear on the pressure plate fingers and the clutch release bearing was shot.

 

I must be doing something right. I ran a 86, 92 and 96 S10's all well over 100k miles each and a ferd focus to 186k and never replaced a clutch on any of them. The focus is now over 200k with the new owner and shows no signs of slowing down.

Biggest problem I have with this Taco is forcing myself to shift at reasonable RPM's like a normal person instead of holding every gear up to 4500 RPM's and zooming around like a fucking idiot.

THIS is why I get like 14 MPG!

 

My 2nd gen lasted 60k. So whatever.

 

Yup, I guess it sometimes boils down to how we were taught to drive stick. On the flip side, ppl will argue about the "proper" way to idle in traffic. From a safety angle, some will say (including a co-worker of mine) that you should be in gear with clutch in. Well, I don't do that since I know what a release bearing is and how it works. Somebody will undoubtedly respond with "well I do that and I've never had a problem". Yup.
What I won't do is call them stupid/dumb though.

 

I'm with you on how I idle in traffic. I can get in gear pretty quick and I never hold up traffic. I've owned many MT's including 6 Toyota 4wd MT's since 1981. I've put many hundreds of thousands of miles on them. Never had to replace a clutch or throw out bearing.

 

I do a little of both; if I know the light is about to change, I don't bother waiting in Neutral, however, if I'm coasting up to a newly turned light, yeah, I'm in Neutral for the duration.

 

It's not much but I'm at 54k with no issues. It feels the same as the day I bought it with only a few thousand miles. I've been considering the ADM.

 

This was my technique when I drove a manual in the city. If I needed to shift the foot and arm action was good enough that you could act in a split second. I'm out of practice by 5 years so my reaction time might be more now.

 

At red lights, I’ve always been just chilling in N, foot off the clutch type guy.

Nobody called anyone dumb. If you read my post, I said: “I think it’s completely unnecessary and dumb”

 

Yep. Never had an issue driving like that.

 

No, you didn't quote anyone and call them dumb directly (that's splitting hairs).What you did was make a statement that inferred ppl are dumb by doing a certain thing. But it's not dumb, it's just the way some ppl drive. There's no issue with downshifting coming up to a red in traffic, as long as the rev matching is done properly. If I was being REALLY picky, I could argue that, ok, you're putting more wear on the release bearing by shifting more often. But then, if you're rolling up to a light with the clutch in the whole way, that too could be a wash.
I will agree that grabbing 1st while rolling is almost never necessary, but with 2nd in these trucks being soo tall there are some situations where I've done it.

 

PMed you

 

Pardon me if this was mentioned before:
As I roll to a stop, I put light pressure on the shift knob…as the rpm drops, the shift knob slips out of gear without using the clutch. Anyone else do this? Any reason why it may be a bad idea?

 

Totally okay, at some point the pressure on the gears is reduced to such a negligible degree they are able to easily slide apart with no issues and no way for damage.